Are you Dory or Marlin?

Do you realize that our attitude determines our approach to life?

I believe that some of the greatest philosophies of our age can be found in cartoons.  Take for example the blockbuster movie of 2003 Finding Nemo.  Do you remember the scene?  Dory thinks she can speak whale.  Other than annoying Marlin (Nemo’s dad), this creates an interesting scenario. 

Here’s the picture…a whale swims up and catches the two characters in its mouth.  At the climax of the scene, the whale begins to swallow, and actually speaks.  Dory, in her infinite wisdom, thinks that the whale is telling them to let go of the whale’s tongue and plunge into the darkness of the belly of the great beast.  Marlin, panicking and not trusting his companion, refuses to let go.  He asks, “how do you know that something bad won’t happen to us?”  Dory’s response-“I don’t” as she lets go!

Sometimes it’s hard to understand what is going on in the world around us.  And when we don’t understand because, you know, WE DON’T SPEAK WHALE.  We look And the result is we can get scared.  

Change can be scary, can’t it?  When things are unfamiliar.  When we don’t quite feel right.  It can cause us to become paralyzed.

Come to find out, Dory was right.  The two are swallowed, shot out of the whale’s blow hole into the sky, and promptly returned to the ocean.  Everything is fine and the circle of life continues.

You know, the only constant in our lives is that change exists, and it is our perception of that change that dominates our reality and how we navigate through it.  We don’t see the world, as it IS we see it as we ARE.  In other words…OUR FOCUS DETERMINES OUR ATTITUDE!!

When we look for the worst, we will find it everywhere.  When we map our brains to be cynical or sarcastic, then we often see the world as just that.  If we want to see the world differently we have to make a better choice.  Similarly, a playful and joyful attitude also comes from within each of us.  It just requires a different kind of choice.  

And it is a choice that only each of us individually is equipped to make.

I don’t know about you, but I love life more when I approach it like my friend Dory.  My goal this week is to get better at speaking whale.  And, until I master it, I am going to try and make better choices when faced with the inevitable changes that will come each day.

I hope you can as well.